3 Oct : An Indian origin professor, Rajesh V Thakker of the University of Oxford has become the first non- American to be honoured with the Founder’s Award from the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research.
Professor Thakker is the May Professor of Medicine at the university and a Fellow of Somerville College where his outstanding research in the area of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism (OCDEM) aimed at determining the causes of inherited bone and mineral metabolism conditions and developing treatments for these diseases, won him accolades in the Uk.
The diseases include cancers of the hormone and endocrine system, over- or under-activity of the parathyroid gland, and rickets.
Professor Thakker has conducted significant research on inherited disorders of bone metabolism a group of diseases including some cancers, kidney stones and rickets.
The 2009 Louis V Avioli Founder s Award for fundamental contributions to bone and mineral basic research has been presented to Professor Thakker at the society s annual meeting in Denver, Colorado.
His work has led to the detailed characterisation of over 12 disorders of bone and mineral metabolism from the genetic and molecular level to clinical studies.
In particular, his research group has demonstrated that abnormalities in ‘junk’ DNA regions of DNA that don’t encode proteins can cause disease, a feature that may be significant in the molecular basis of other inherited diseases.